Summary: 9 ordinary roommates deal with a rainy day.

Pairings: OT9

Genre: Friendship, Slice-of-Life

Rain.       

Some people would say that when the day starts off with pouring rain, instead of a bright sunny morning like we always see every day, it is going to be a letdown for everyone going through their daily lives.

People complain about how it seems to ruin their perfect day, or that whenever dark clouds are looming over, something bad is going to happen at any moment.

Everyone wants happiness.

They do not want sadness.

They want to see a rainbow.

No one wants pain.

But you can’t make a rainbow, without a little rain.

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The sounds of dripping rain echoed throughout the empty living room. Usually, it would be filled with the high-pitched laughter and different voices of the occupants in the dormitory. But at that moment, the place was strangely devoid of the melodious noises that could be heard by the neighbours of the occupants.

The woman who was sitting on the white couch was very aware of that fact.

Clad in only a long dress-shirt and her undergarments, Tiffany brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, while laying her head on it. A sombre expression was fixed on her beautiful complexion.

A cup of steaming hot chocolate was placed undisturbed on the coffee table in front of her.

Tiffany has never felt so… alone before.

She knew that the other eight women she lived with had their own daily schedules to take care of, but this was the first time she had seen and experienced the emptiness of the room before her. Normally, the first one to come back home was Taeyeon, but since she had something to take care of, Tiffany was the next one to come back; seeing nobody else in the dorm with her. Accompanied with the dreary weather, the room felt emptier and colder than before.

‘When are you guys gonna come back?’

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Sprinting as fast as she could towards her humble abode, Taeyeon made her way through the deserted streets of Seoul while trying to cover her head with her guitar case from the oncoming rain. Curse her luck for the day to rain just when she had already left the building where her guitar lessons were being held. She growled under her breath because of the predicament she was in.

With the water droplets pelting mercilessly on her petite self and soaking her to the bone, she rushed all the way back to her sanctuary where she looked forward to seeing the other eight angels she adored.

Being the oldest one in this circle of friendship made her feel responsible for their well-being and whatever problems they might have caused during their stay in the dorm. Especially with the four pranksters, but that’s okay with her.

She loved all of them.

Even if any one of her angels did something that would make them be shunned by the entire world, she would still have the heart to forgive them. That’s how close they have gotten.

At long last, she finally reached her destination. Climbing up the stairs, she went towards the front door. Taeyeon hastily searched for her keys in her jeans pocket, found it and managed to open the front door. She tiredly went into the living room; droplets of water dripping on to the carpeted floor from her brown locks of hair, clothes, and the guitar case she carried.

She spotted a figure sitting motionlessly on the couch.

Miyoung.

The woman sitting on the couch raised her head to look at the newcomer. Taeyeon could see that she had been crying for a while, judging by her tear-stained face. It broke Taeyeon’s heart to see her like that.

‘How long have you been waiting for one of us to come back here?’

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There was only silence in the building where she worked, except for the occasional whispers and rustling of readers flipping the pages of their book. Jessica lazily arranged the books in the correct order on the bookshelves, and reluctantly grabbed another stack of paperbacks that were supposed to be handled by another librarian but was nowhere in sight.

The sleepy blonde sighed for the millionth time since she started working here. She didn’t mind shelving all these pieces of literature back into the proper order but lately it had gotten kind of boring after a while.

Jessica had decided to apply for this job to gain some money, so that she could help her parents pay her college fees. She felt like a burden towards them for having to rely so much on them to pay for her education. She did not like being so dependent on other people.

However, that mindset had changed after she met eight other women struggling to get by college life like her.

At first, she felt a bit intimidated and overwhelmed that she had to share a huge room in a dorm with not one or two, but EIGHT strangers!

Eight strangers that eventually became the best of friends.

She has accepted the fact that she could rely and depend on them to help her get through the problems she was struggling through, and in return, she could help them get through their problems.

That made her smile at the thought.

After seeing that she did not have anymore books to sort through, Jessica decided to take a short break by getting some fresh air outside. It took her by surprise that it was raining pretty heavily in Seoul when it was in the middle of summer. That did not bother her since she was longing for more wet weather after suffering from the heat wave that almost made her faint due to dehydration.

Jessica leaned against one of the pillars supporting the huge building and sighed once again, whilst staring blankly at the pouring rain.

‘I wonder what they’re doing right now…’

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A few blocks away from where the blonde was contemplating, a senior in high school is currently facing a dilemma on whether to continue focusing on the lesson, or doze off undetected by the teacher. Juhyun, or Seohyun in which she was normally known as, tried her best to concentrate on the board in front of her but her eyes would not obey her.

Every few seconds, she would catch herself almost drifting off to la-la land before her teacher noticed. It would cause him to break out into a fuss if he sees his star pupil not paying attention to his very important lesson on Calculus.

Maybe it was the weather that was making her so sleepy.

Strangely enough, whenever Seohyun starts to enter this ‘la-la land’, she will imagine a field of bright sunflowers with the Sun’s rays shining upon them.

Seohyun stood in the middle of the field; her arms spread out wide apart while breathing in the aroma of the flowers around her.

It was heavenly.

She opened her eyes to look at the wonderful scenery before her. She felt a presence standing behind her. Turning around, she faced a doe-eyed woman she knew very well with her right hand reaching out towards Seohyun. She saw her other non-blood related sisters running around the field, playing with each other with bright smiles on their faces. It made her heart flutter to see them having so much fun, but she wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.

Seohyun took the offered hand in front of her, and let herself be dragged towards where the joy and fun was.

That did not happen.

Seohyun felt a repeated tapping on her shoulder.

She woke up and saw her teacher’s face.

One word: Busted.

‘Oh, why did you have to ruin my fun time with my unnies!?’

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An upbeat hip-hop music can be heard throughout the crowded dance studio, followed by the squeaky sounds made by the dancers’ shoes moving with the rhythm. It eventually stopped and the music died down.

Hyoyeon turned off the boom box and after that, she high-fived her other fellow practice mates; signaling to them that the exhausting routine was finally over. Watching them pack up and leave the room, the dancing queen did the same but managed to squeeze in some of her moves while doing that.

Dancing is her passion! She can’t resist moving her body. Whether or not there was any music to groove to, she would still be seen popping and locking; generating a lot of bemused stares from other people if she starts to break out into a dancing frenzy in the middle of the streets. Luckily whenever that happens, one of her roommates/friends would always be around to either drag her away from having a performance or JOIN IN with her wild antics. They had once even made some of their audience to give away some coins for entertaining them!

She laughed at that humorous memory.

After making sure everything was packed up, she switched off the lights and exited the studio. Making her way through the building while waving back at some of the people she knew there, she went to the entrance but an obstacle was in her way.

Crap, no umbrella…

Hyoyeon heaved a frustrated sigh and had no choice but to wait for the weather to clear up. She placed her backpack on the ground and sat on the sheltered porch of the building. Normally, she would go to the cafeteria to wait but she was too tired to go there.

It was a very long day for her.

All she wanted to do now was to curl up on her nice, warm bed and take a quick nap. But normally she wouldn’t do that when she comes back to the dorm because eight dorks will be waiting for her to cook them a delicious home-made dinner. She didn’t mind cooking for them. Seeing their joyful faces was enough to put a smile on her face and re-energize her for the rest of the day.

She looked up at the pouring rain.

Dark clouds still loomed over the city.

‘I guess they have to wait a little bit longer for dinner to be served.’

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*BANG*

*ARRGH!*

*BOOM*

Enemy soldiers were mercilessly bombarded with bullets and grenades. Explosions from those grenades sent them flying all over the place, hurling bits and pieces of their bodies around the area. And eventually the big boss also met the same fate.

If this wasn’t a game, the person killing all these people probably wouldn’t have survived this far.

Sunny squealed in delight after she had finally beaten the boss for the game. The feat was not left unnoticed by the way, as she had already formed a crowd behind her; due to her repeatedly playing the shooting game all the way to the final level. They cheered for her after she had won it, knowing that it was a very difficult game to get through let alone finishing it in one day.

The vertically-challenged woman checked her wallet.

Enough money for one more game.

Her parents would kick up a fuss if they ever hear their daughter recklessly spending her money in an arcade!

Well, college life would sometimes get to her. She needed something to let off her steam… The only way to do that was to do something she loved the most. Playing video games, of course!

The crowd parted so that the woman could make her way towards the one and only ‘DJ MAX TECHNIKA’ machine.  She step up on to the platform, insert a coin into the machine and selected an easy song that she loved to start off with.

‘FIRST KISS’

Sunny skillfully tap her fingers on to the screen and the beat of the song, not getting distracted by the colourful ‘anime’ music video in the background but focusing on the notes in front of her. Since it was quite a basic song, she easily had gotten an ‘A’ rank for it. The crowd from before had followed her and watched her play it, awaiting the woman to choose a harder song to play.

She did choose a slightly difficult one called ‘OBLIVION’.

The audience watched in awe as Sunny tapped her fingers and hold the notes of the song to perfection without breaking it. She smirked when she managed to not miss any one of the notes. She really liked this song, so it’s no wonder she could get another ‘A’ rank for it. The audience was impressed!

For the final song, she wanted to try beating this song that had owned her since the day she found out about this game. She loves challenging herself. She flexed her fingers, inhaled, exhaled, and readied herself for the tapping chaos she’s going to face. If her other eight roommates were with her right now, they would understand the nervousness she was going through, even if it was just a game.

‘SIN’

The moment the song started, she was already bombarded with so many notes to tap on while trying to keep up with the utterly ridiculous speed of the epic music! Sunny rapidly moved her hands from the top half to the bottom half of the screen, holding a note at the bottom with her right hand while using her left hand to tap the notes on the top. The audience was not blind to see that the petite woman was struggling to survive this monstrosity of a level, judging by her hasty movements and that she kept missing some of the difficult notes.

The audience could only sympathize with Sunny’s predicament as she was now in panic mode. If you thought the beginning was tough, wait till you manage to get towards the ending of the song.

When she reached the of the song, Sunny’s fingers were scattered all over the screen! It’s a miracle that she had gotten this far, despite how many notes she horribly missed. Similarly with the fighting scene shown in the music video towards the ending of the song, Sunny was also battling with the level, just to make it out alive.

C’mon, almost there.

Clenched teeth…

Last note…

Finally, black screen and the song ended.

Sunny raised her arms and cheered to the heavens!

Or technically, the ceiling.

Cheers and applauses were heard behind her!

She looked back towards the screen to see her ranking.

‘C’

Oh well, that was good enough for her.

She heaved a sigh of relief and decided that it was time to go home. The survivor exited the arcade, not forgetting to wave and gives her trademark cute smile back at her audience whom had witnessed her successful feat.

When she came out of the arcade, the rain welcomed her.

Luckily, there was a bus stop nearby to reach her destination without getting wet.

‘I wished you guys would have been there and cheered me on just now.’

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Heavy panting and light stomps could be heard from the person using the treadmill for quite awhile. The sweaty slim and toned body of a feminine figure, wearing a black tank top and a pair of track pants, glistened under the ceiling lights of the gym.

Yuri had opted to do her daily fitness routine in the public gym, instead of her usual jog around her favourite park, because of two reasons.

Firstly, it was raining cats and dogs outside.

And secondly, she wanted to go somewhere a little different for her exercise. Somewhere she could think and reflect about her day without any disturbance. It was not that running around at the park wasn’t good enough for her to do that, but maybe she just wanted a change of scenery to clear up her thoughts.

She wondered how she had gotten this far. She barely managed to scrape through high school with decent grades to get her out of that hell-hole, and into a university so that she could fulfill her parents’ wishes. However, now that college life is becoming more demanding, her schedule is becoming more and more packed every day due to the amount of essays she needed to hand in.

Yuri pressed the ‘off’ switch on the machine and wiped her drenched forehead with her forearm. The raven-haired woman gripped the side bars on the treadmill to steady herself; panting quite loudly to regain her much needed oxygen. She stepped off of it and walked towards the shower room, wanting to get rid of the stench that she had just made on herself.

Odd…

For some reason, there was not a single soul occupying the pearly white-tiled room which contained several cubicles.

After stripping off every article of clothing on her, Yuri went into one of the stalls and the faucet. It didn’t matter to her when the freezing cold water landed on her. She just stood there, and when finally the cold water became warm, she slowly leaned her head against the wall in front of her.

She lets out an audible sigh.

Stress was slowly pushing her to her breaking point, but if it wasn’t for her parents’ undying support and love, she would have slit her wrists right about now.

Wait…how could she have forgotten the love and support of the eight people she’s staying with right now?

She pondered over that.

It’s as if they were destined to meet. She didn’t know how nine very different women were able to become so close in the span of two years and counting. She remembered the day they first met at the dorm, realizing that they had to stay there together.

Oh, how awkward everyone was with each other…even though the more sociable ones helped to break the ice once in a while, the awkward moments were still there and lasted for several weeks. They had their arguments, ranging from the trivial to the more serious ones.

Yuri shuddered at the thought of those serious problems. All she could say about that was that all hell would break loose and chaos would ensue.

But for some reason, those arguments helped to establish a loving bond between them.

‘Man, you guys don’t know how much I cherish all of you right now.'

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The aroma of freshly-brewed coffee filled the entire café, endless chatters that came from the patrons could be heard all around; continuously drowning out the hollers to pick up the customer’s orders from the kitchen crew to the waiters and waitresses.

Yoona balanced the plates of the mouth-watering desserts and hurriedly make her way through the café to give the orders to the delighted customers. The moment she finished doing that, someone at another table was waving his hand for her to get the check. Yoona tiredly went over all the way to the other side, and took out a notebook from the pocket of her black skirt to calculate the total amount.

It was normal for the place to be crowded during the late afternoon, but it had just gotten twice as much patron than before due to the undesirable weather outside. People from all walks of ages streamed into the café, either to take cover from the rain, get something to warm themselves up or both. The workers were practically rushing all over the place so as not to disappoint any of their precious customers. This was a great time to get some much desired tips from them if they think their services were good enough.

Yoona grinned at that thought.

The customers at the table in front of her gave her a weird look.

She realized that and quickly went back to her calculations, trying to hide her embarrassment behind the tiny book. Sometimes, she really needed to teach herself to NOT show her emotions so easily.

The doe-eyed woman gave the check to them and patiently waited for the money to be given. Once it was given to her, Yoona thanked the customers and proceeded to clear up the table after all of them left. She was a bit disappointed that no tip was given.

Maybe her random smile just now gave them goose bumps or something.

After she cleared the mess on the table, she once again balanced the plates on her hands, with the additional weight of the coffee mugs on them; making it a slightly tougher challenge for Yoona. This was not the first time that she had to handle fragile objects like this, but when there are people all over the place who were moving from one place to another in a blink of an eye, this could be a recipe for disaster.

Yoona dodged and squeezed through the queue of people blocking the way towards the kitchen, while making sure the plates were secured in her hands.

The safe haven was already a few inches away from her!

YES! ALMOST THERE!

But then, the inevitable happened.

The swing doors in front of her suddenly came alive and pushed her backwards.

A shriek came out from Yoona’s alligator mouth, bringing everyone’s eyes to the scene in front of the kitchen doors. Everything felt like it was in slow-motion. Yoona landed on her with a loud thud, but her eyes were now focused on the very fragile objects that were going to have a crash landing on to the wooden floor.

With all her might and dignity left, the flounder-faced woman dived straight towards the plates and mugs to prevent their collision with the ground. Yoona closed her eyes to avoid looking at the impact and the shattered glass.

Nothing shattered.

No broken glass.

Yoona finally opened her eyes.

The plates and mugs were back on the palms of her hands again.

The café erupted with bursts of applause from everyone who had witnessed the grand feat!

Yoona was dumbfounded.

‘Well… this would be a great story to tell the others later.’

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The restaurant had been accommodating only a few hungry customers. The mouth-watering aroma of cold noodles and ramen could be picked up from miles away. A tall and lanky short-haired woman was occupying a window seat, slurping her bowl of noodles just like how a starving man would do.

Some of the patrons sitting near her table sneaked some wary glances from the corner of their eyes, as Sooyoung continuously devoured her ramen with the help of her chopsticks; oblivious to the fact that her gluttony was attracting unwanted attention. At this rate, people would have thought that the skinny woman had run away from home or was participating in a food competition. There were already two empty bowls beside her on the table, so it’s no wonder that they would have thought of that.

Finally, Sooyoung finished her third bowl and didn’t opt for another. Her choice was a bit of a disappointment for the owner of the restaurant.

Leaning her head back against the seat, Sooyoung reminisced about the first time she had a bowl of ramen THIS good. Back when she was only a kid, she had spend most of her childhood in the land of the rising Sun where ramen is one of the main staple food there. She was only seven years old when her family had to move to Japan because of her father’s hectic business meetings there. At that point in time, Sooyoung had to learn her own mother tongue and a foreign language that she had no clue about.

Being teased and make fun out of because of her poor Japanese was an everyday experience for Sooyoung. But luckily, her mother had already found the solution to bringing a smile back on her daughter’s face. Every week on a Friday, her beloved mother would bring Sooyoung to a ramen stall after she finished school. Knowing that her daughter is a glutton for food, Mrs. Choi ordered a large bowl that the stall offered.

It was the very first time that Sooyoung ate it… and it was like love at first bite!

Sooyoung truly enjoyed that wonderful meal. She asked her mother if they could come here again. Her mother nodded, but only under one condition. If Sooyoung is able to improve her Japanese and show her classmates that her Japanese was better than theirs, she would bring her daughter here every week.

That was more than enough of a deal to make the glutton study hard.

By the time she entered middle school, she was already fluent in the language she had a hard time on. Her mother did not forget about their promise, and happily agreed to bring her to the ramen stall once she had seen her daughter’s improvement.

Sooyoung breezed through middle school like it was the easiest thing to do in the world. She made friends there and became one of the more popular students in her school. Her grades went up a notch, and she was able to get into a pretty good high school in Japan. Her popularity soared even higher. Boys and girls alike wanted to get to know her. Sooyoung felt proud that she became almost like a star, but…

Something about it seemed fake to her.

The ‘friends’ that hung around her like groupies pissed her off in one way or another. They acted as if they knew her and followed her around the campus, but never in her life had she went out with them. She had never been asked to hang out, have fun and just enjoy herself… They had her number but they only texted her to find out if there’s any homework, or if she could help teach them about something they didn’t understand. Not a single one sent her a simple ‘Hi! How are you?’

She realized that being with these people would only cause her more frustration and hurt. So, one day when she entered the school, not at all surprised that she was once again ambushed by her fake friends, she did something that will be plastered in the back of their minds until the day they died.

She flicked them off.

Yup, she pasted on her best poker face, raised both of her hands and gave them the finger. Adding insult to injury, she even yelled at them in her best English voice.

" OFF, LOSERS!"

And with that done, she pushed her way through the dumbfounded crowd and made her way to her first class of the day.

Ever since that incident, nobody dared to go near her. Sooyoung never regretted about what she had done. However, it did make her seem quite hostile to those who weren’t involved in that declaration of independence. The student bodies especially, were more wary of getting in her way. The teachers had already heard of her vulgar escapade, but did not bother about disciplining her since she was one of the school’s top student and one that was well-liked by them.

Even though it was a little difficult to get through high school when almost everyone was so scared of her, she still survived it. During that time, her father was promoted to a higher rank in his job and was able to go back to their original homeland. Sooyoung was delighted to hear that she and her family could go back. It also meant she would be able to enter in one of Korea’s prestigious universities.

But for some reason, she felt that something was missing in her life.

And then she met these eight strangers.

From then on, she discovered that she was longing for people who would truly understand her, have fun with her and share a bond with her. She hated the annoying experience during high school.

She wanted to start anew.

Sooyoung looked outside through the restaurant’s windows beside her.

Still raining…

‘Show my appreciation and love for them? *sigh* This is seriously gonna burn a hole in my wallet…’

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The pouring rain starts to lessen its intensity as time goes on.

Eventually, it came to a stop.

The Sun broke its way through the stubborn grey clouds, and shined its warm rays of light on to the world below.

The city of Seoul became brighter every second, as the grey clouds finally starts to disappear.

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Tiffany holds tightly onto the neck of the drenched short woman, not wanting to let her go.

Taeyeon could not decide on whether to continue hugging the fragile woman in front of her, or break the hug to shower and change into something drier.

Jessica grabbed her handbag and marched out of the library after finishing her mundane shift.

Seohyun packed her books into her backpack, bowed and apologized profusely to her teacher for dozing off before exiting her last class of the day.

Hyoyeon stopped bopping her head to the music she was listening to on her IPod when the rain stopped, lifted her off the ground and proceeded back towards her humble abode.

Sunny looked up when she saw her bus approaching to a stop and entered it, even though it was packed like a tin of sardines.

Yuri dried herself with one of the complimentary towels the gym offered, went to the locker room to get changed and left the gym.

Yoona smiled sheepishly as her boss/supervisor gave her early salary as a thank you for entertaining the patrons with her stunt, thanked her boss in return and hurriedly left the café before anyone else compliment her about that.

And as for Sooyoung? Well let’s just say she’s going to be a bit late.

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Taeyeon finished taking her warm shower and finally got herself into some drier clothes. Being drenched while hugging someone who was not wet made her feel uncomfortable. Now clad in a blue knit sweater and a pair of pants, she dried her damp brown hair with her towel while emerging into the spacious white living room.

She was delighted to see that the then empty room was now occupied with the eight angels she adored instead of one. The usual chit-chats and laughter of the dorm has rece again. Tiffany was back to her eye-smiling self at last as she loudly talked with all of them to know how their day went.  

Jessica, Seohyun, Sunny and Yuri were sitting on the couch with Tiffany, while Hyoyeon went into the kitchen to make dinner with Yoona following closely behind her; probably wanting to have a little taste test of what their beloved cook would prepare.

But wait… where was her giant food goddess?

And on cue, Sooyoung entered the dorm with two huge plastic bags in her hands. One could tell that what she brought was something edible since the aroma was enough to make them all salivate and their stomachs to growl.

Hyoyeon and Yoona appeared back into the living room when their sensitive noses picked up the scent of already cooked food. Sooyoung stood stiffly at the entrance and found the floor more interesting than the eight pair of eyes staring intently at her.

Well, this is awkward.

“Uh… I-I bought some ramen for dinner … you guys want some? W-we don’t need to cook for today…”

‘What the hell? I never stutter when I talk to people, let alone these girls right here.’

Sooyoung up all of her pride and dared to glance up at the people in front of her.

Eight beautiful faces were smiling VERY sweetly at her.

That made her blush.

‘Is it me or do they look like they’re gonna melt? And why is my face getting warm!?’

“Uh…guys?”

The youngest made the first move. Seohyun got up from the couch and happily walked towards her unnie, while that sweet smile was still plastered on her innocent complexion. Sooyoung blinked when she stood in front of her.

“What? Is there something on my face?”

Seohyun ignored the question, and just proceeded to hug her. Everyone else followed her example.

“Aww~ Sooyoungie~”

In the end, Sooyoung was stuck in the middle of a bear- hug filled with love by eight VERY touched women, with no way of getting out.

Who wouldn’t be touched when your beloved shikshin is treating her friends’ dinner? 

END